For almost a year, I bought equipment & ingredients from mail order companies like homebrew.com and stpats.com. In the meantime, I'd stop on occasion at a small homebrew shop about 30mi from my home (when I was in the area). The fellow who ran it didn't stock many beer ingredients but he kept telling me that he could order just about anything. I finally gave him the chance to fill my brewclub's order one time, and I havn't regretted it since. These guys usually pay freight charges for large orders, instead of UPS and I saved alot of money!! I still buy some specialty ingredients via mail order, but this local guy handles all of our base grains, etc. He even claims that his suppliers can drop ship to my house! In summary.... I'm not sure where you live, but my decision to give our local shop a chance has saved over 15% on our beer costs.